Jul 11, 2014

Greetings from Colorado! We got to this beautiful state on day 36 from Benkelman, NE to Yuma, CO. Today was a rest day in Boulder, CO and it was a fantastic day. Boulder was one of the cities that I was most looking forward to visiting, especially since I had never been here before. Boulder seems like the ideal city for me; bike friendly, outdoorsy people, mountains, nature, local food and beer. I seriously might consider living here one day.

I started the day with a macchiato from Fior di Latte. I heard that they had really good coffee and gelato, and it didn't disappoint. I ordered it with house-made almond milk, which foamed up perfectly.

For breakfast, I decided on a breakfast cafe called Snooze. I was really craving pancakes and omelets, and that's exactly what I ordered. Everything was delicious.

The one thing I really wanted to do in Boulder was to go mountain biking, so I had to make it happen. I noticed a ton of people here who have mountain bikes, and I knew there must be some fantastic trails nearby.

Max and I went to Full Cycle bike shop to rent a hardtail mountain bike and asked them about trails that are within biking distance. They directed us to a canyon loop trail, which was pretty accessible by bike.

Even before we got to the single track, the path to the trailhead was gorgeous. It ran parallel to a creek, with the mountains on both sides.

The trail was pretty tough, which was very steep sections that I had to walk my bike up. I had never mountain bike with clip less pedals, so it was a bit challenging to get used to them on the difficult terrain. I was also really feeling the elevation, and got winded after climbing a bit. I felt so out of shape, but I hope it was just due to the lack of oxygen.

It was about 6 miles of paths and trails to get to the canyon loop, which was 3.3 miles. It felt amazing to go down some of the descents with big bumps in the path that I could jump off of. Max and I had a blast and soaked in the amazing view.

On the way back, we decided to climb a huge rock formation next to the bike path. We got to the very top and had a great view of the canyon.

Tomorrow, we are going to Fort Collins, CO. Sorry about the lack of blog posts lately. I have been enjoying my time at the host cities and exploring, so I rarely have any down time. I will try to post some of the days that I missed.